A few weeks ago PaddleTimes introduced Mike Gillespie’s revolutionary teaching tool, the Gillespie Scale. The scale helps players of all levels to asses their own weaknesses and strenghts while pointing out the areas where they need to keep working on. PaddleTimes can now proudly announce that the Scale WORKS! How do we know it? Its creator, Mike Gillespie, just won the APTA at the Men’s 50+ Nationals.

Mike and his partner Ron Erskine defeated in the finals defending champ Scott Bondurant and former champ Tim McAvoy by 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Although Gillespie-Erskine went to Scardsdale as an unseeded team, they were one of the favorites to win it all. Mike was coming from going 6-1 at Nationals in Long Island the previous weekend when he partnered with Max LePivert and won the 64s Back Draw. Two weeks earlier Mike also reached the final at the Men’s 45’s National with partner Bob Conklin before falling to Mike Atkinson and John Milbankc in a close three sets match.

In the semis, the 2012 champs beat #2 seeds David Graham and Rusty Wright by a convincing 6-3, 6-2 while Bondurant-McAvoy took down Mike Atkinson and Tim Heath by 6-3, 6-4 on the other semis. Mike and partner Ron have been using the Gillespie Scale for a long time. If you want to improve your game maybe is time for all of us to start using it too.

To see all results from the tournament click here. If you want to learn more about the Gillespie Scale click here.